|
Review content:
I don't normally write reviews, but I was a bit surprised at the 5 star reviews on citysearch for this restaurant. Granted it was all written in the same month nearly a year ago...
I ate at Estiatorio Rafina a few months ago, and was pretty disappointed based on the previous reviews. None of the reviews were very specific about the actual food, so here goes. I arrived with a few friends so we had a sampling of the whole menu. One of my friends is a vegetarian, and chose to have a salad with 2 appetizers to satisfy her meal since there were no strictly vegetarian entrees (which is totally fine). I think we all sensed a strange vibe from the waiter taking our order when my vegetarian friend made this request--as if this was a burdensome request of some sort.
The rest of us ordered from the rest of the menu and shared the mixed spread of tzaziki, eggplant spread and a salty caviar spread. All pretty decent, but the bread was cold and a bit stale/hard. My vegetarian friend ordered a cold soup which was fine, grilled portobellos which was flavorless and a salad. I tasted the other dishes my other friends had...the moussaka (creamier and greasier than I've had in the past), red snapper (unfortunately overcooked, and I usually love whole fish, but it can be hard to make perfect) and the chicken kabob (average, not particularly exciting, but I guess chicken kabobs usually aren't).
The 2 stars are for the food (slightly below average compared to the food in the area). If I had to include service in my review, it would be down to 1 star. We had an odd experience with our server (always felt like we were asking for something too much, forks, refill on water, and the 3 veggie dishes instead of one entree)...service was slow, despite the restaurant not being full. The owner was a bit rude when we asked where our food was, because it seemed as if they were more focused on serving large group of their friends (?) at a nearby table. On top of that, when the bill came, we asked to split it between 2 credit cards (which is not too difficult) but unfortunately, the server had difficulty with the math. It ended up being more complicated than it needed to be with a manager and someone else being involved, just to try to figure out a rather straight forward check! It was a bit confusing because the restaurant suddenly got very loud with a live singer crooning off tune, and I think there was difficulty hearing us talking as we were trying to clear this up.
I would really like to give this place 1 star for the overall experience, but am refraining because to be fair, the food was at least edible, but the service was completely unacceptable.
|